Page images
PDF
EPUB

The review of your work [on the Epistle to the Hebrews] in the Eclectic greatly vexed me. However, you have this comfort, if you required it, which you do not, that this periodical is very much gone down in the estimation of the public; which I the more regret, (I mean this in reference to the cause,) as it is the only ostensibly literary production published by the Dissenters in this country. It was peculiarly ungracious, on the ground that we should, instead of carping and endeavouring to depreciate the productions of the two countries, do every thing in our power to mutually bring them forward.

* *

We have a communion of labour. Our aims are the same. We serve the one Great Master. We endeavour in the strength of his grace to consecrate our energies to the advancement of his word and cause in the world. time we shall reap if we faint not.' various and important labours to his

Let us persevere. In due
Commending you and your
blessing, I remain
Your's, very fraternally,

E. HENDERSON.

2. Extract from a Letter to Prof. Stuart from the REV. JOHN PYE SMITH, D. D. Prof. of Theol. at Homerton near London.

MY DEAR SIR,

*

HOMERTON, NEAR LONDON, APRIL 7, 1831.

*

*

I have not yet seen the works constituting the Course of Hebrew Study, which you have so kindly sent to Dr Henderson; but I have no doubt of being favoured with the inspection of them. He teaches Hebrew at Highbury College, upon the solid principles to which you are giving currency and effect. In our College the arrangement is different. The Hebrew tuition belongs to the Classical Tutor's office. I lament to say that Mr Walfort, an inflexible man, who has sustained that office for seventeen years, has followed the baseless scheme of Parkhurst, which you so justly denominate "without form and void." He has, under heavy mental affliction, very recently resigned. My new colleague, the Rev. Daniel Godfrey Bishop, has long entered, and most cordially, into your principles; and he will zealously and ably act upon them. Our number of students does not average more than about sixteen; at Highbury, they have usually double that number, or more. The term of study with us is usually two years longer than theirs. Our insti

tution consists of two foundations, the one having commenced about 1690; the other, to which the property belongs, in

1730.

*

Yours, most truly,

J. PYE SMITH.

3. Extracts from a Letter to the Editor from the same. HOMERTON, MIDDLESEX, APRIL 16, 1831.

MY DEAR SIR,

I cannot but feel myself greatly favoured in your kind attention, in addition to those of your distinguished fellow Professors Dr Woods and Mr Stuart.

* *

In my letter to Professor Stuart, I forgot to advert to a topic which gave me considerable pain. May I trespass on your kindness to mention it to him? It is, what appeared to me the unkind and unjust manner in which his Commentary on the Hebrews was treated in the Eclectic Review. I am ignorant who the author of that article was, and I do not wish to know. An equally unknown reviewer also, I think in the Congregational Magazine, while in other respects he wrote with commendable fairness, made a very unreflecting objection to the constant adducing of the Greek text in the Commentary; a circumstance of so much convenience to that class of readers for whom the work is principally intended. The editor of the Eclectic Review is Mr Josiah Conder; that of the Congregational Magazine, the Rev. John Blackburn of Pentonville, near London; both excellent men. But in such publications, haste, and infirmity, and the diversity of writers, will produce things occasionally that excite regret.

*

*

From your long residence in Germany, I cherish the hope that you will communicate to the British and American Christian public a more accurate, discriminating, and just account of the state of real religion in the different German states than has been yet done. In this country there are some, yet I believe not many, who have imbibed the spirit, in its worst power, of the German rationalists. These are partly among the open and honestly avowed Unitarians, and partly in the established church, notwithstanding the "binding force" of its articles and liturgy; of which "binding force" my worthy friend Mr Rose is so enamoured. In his book, of which the second edition is a

great improvement upon the first, on "The State of the Protestant Religion in Germany," he has brought forward a mass of materials, but to a considerable degree, I fear, incomplete as data.-Mr Pusey, Hebrew Professor at Oxford, appears to me to have a more perfect acquaintance with the case; but, I fear that his candour and benevolence have betrayed him into mistakes of a kind the reverse of Mr Rose's. Yet I can speak only of his first edition; the second, I am told, is much improved. I feel an ardent desire to know your opinion of Schleiermacher. One finds in his writings a daring and a rashness mounting up to absolute impiety; and yet, in some, the apparent breathings of vital religion.

*

*

Do me the favour of making my most respectful regards to Dr Woods and Mr Stuart. That the best of heavenly blessings may rest upon you and them, is the cordial prayer of,

My dear sir,

Yours, in the sacred bonds of faith and love,
J. PYE SMITH.

4. Extracts from a Letter to the Editor from the REV. SAMUEL LEE, B. D. Prof. of Arabic and Hebrew in the University of Cambridge, Eng.

MY DEAR SIR,

LONDON, JUNE 5, 1831.

I am very much obliged to you for your kind letter of Jan. 20th, which came duly to hand, and for the first number of your "Biblical Repository."-It will be a great satisfaction to me to open a correspondence with you, and to contribute all the encouragement, advice, etc. I can, to your praiseworthy undertaking. It delights me and all my Cambridge and other friends to find, that our American neighbours are really outstripping us in the cause of Biblical literature. May He whose cause you are labouring to promote, strengthen your hands an hundred fold! I am quite sure you will find no unholy rivalry here, although I do hope, you will find us endeavouring to keep up the race, as well as the contention necessary to secure that crown, which fadeth not away.

I have seen a copy of the [new edition of Prof. Stuart's] Grammar; and the industry of its author is new matter for my admiration of him. Of my own Grammar, which differs a little in principle from Mr Stuart's, a very large impression has

sold entirely off, and I am now printing a second, and am about half way through it. I have a considerable quantity of new matter, which I am sure you will duly appreciate, and I am not without hopes will closely criticise. My doctrine of the tenses of the verb, I consider as established. M. de Sacy, with whom I am now engaged in controversy on that and some other points, has, to all intents and purposes, given this up. He only now contends for the venerable conversivum. In my next reply, of which I shall send you a copy, I expect to satisfy him on this point also. The other points I allude to as lately made out by me, are, the use of the apocopated present tenses, the use of the

paragogic, and of the epenthetic and paragogic. These I find all in constant use in the Arabic, and their offices laid down by the native Grammarians; and that in no case do these rules disagree with Hebrew usages. But on this subject you will make up your mind, when you see the works alluded to.

I send you herewith two works which I have lately published. One on the interpretation etc. of Scripture generally, and of prophecy in particular. The results I came to in the latter case, were such as I did not expect, but which I found myself quite unable to get rid of. I can only say of myself, that my aim is truth; and in so saying, I can perhaps also affirm, that I am willing to give up the views there advanced, when it shall be shown that they are unsound. You will find a considerable quantity of other curious matter in the book, and among this, some which has induced me to think more lightly both of German learning and of German divinity than I have been used to think. But this I leave. The other work I send you consists of some Latin prefaces prepared for a small Polyglott published by Mr Bagster, of which you have no doubt heard. You will find some original matter in this, although the work is not long. Since I wrote last to America, I have been elected to the Hebrew professorship in our university. In consequence of this, I have sent out a general Prospectus of Lectures, a copy of which I send you. So, my dear sir, you will see that I mean not to sleep at my post. Mr Skinner and several others at Cambridge are working with me very cordially, and I hope we

*

The following is the Prospectus here referred to.

ED.

CAMBRIDGE, FEB. 1831. The Regius Professor of Hebrew gives notice, that it is his intention, early in the next October Term, to commence (with a view

[blocks in formation]

shall recover the honour of our country, which had been allowed to fade in this respect.

I have in the press too, a new Hebrew Lexicon, of which I

to publication) a complete Course of Lectures on the Hebrew Scriptures, of which the following is an outline.

I.

1. The Philology and Rhetoric of the Hebrews.

2. Their Archaeologia or Antiquities.

3. Jewish, i. e. Rabbinic and Karaïte Literature, and the influence it has exercised on the exegetical interpretation of the Scriptures.

4. On the Oriental Dialects, viz. the Arabic, Syriac, Chaldaic, Samaritan, Ethiopic, Persic, Coptic,-their use, and abuse, etc.

5. The authority, use, etc. of the Ancient Paraphrases and Versions of the Scriptures, viz. the Chaldee Targums, the Septuagint and other Greek versions, the Latin Itala and Vulgate, the Syriac Peschito and Versions from the Greek, the Ethiopic, and Coptic.

6. How far the Commentaries, Apologies, and Homilies, of the Fathers of the Church, may be relied on as means of Scriptural Interpretation. 7. Modern Grammars, Lexicons, Commentaries, Homilies, Ephemeral Reading, etc.

II.

1. The language of Prophecy, whether purely verbal, symbolical, or mixed. 2. The single and double sense considered.

3. Examination of passages cited from the Prophets in the New Testament. 4. On fulfilled and unfulfilled Prophecy; the opinions of the ancients and moderns, whether Christians or Jews, considered.

5. The Prophecies analyzed, read, and construed.

III.

1. The Book of Psalms analyzed, read, explained, and applied.

2. The citations given in the New Testament from this Book examined, with respect to both their grammatical and exegetical interpretation.

IV.

The Historical and Doctrinal Books of the Old Testament considered, read, and construed, in the following order.

1. The Book of Genesis, with respect to its character and authority, both as a religious and historical code; its coincidences with the Fragments of Chaldean, Egyptian,Phoenician, and other antiquities; its predictions, etc. 2. The remaining books of the Pentateuch, with regard to their religious and historical character, authority, predictions, etc.

3. Historical sketch of the Theocracy, its duration, and fate. Difficulties occurring in the Biblical narrative, and particularly those which have been adduced as grounds of objection to the authority of the Scriptures. 4. Citations of the New Testament adduced and considered.

5. The doctrinal books, viz. Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, analyzed, read, and construed; citations from these found in the New Testament, examined; their general character and authority considered.

It is not pretended that this course will be completed in one year; the intention is, merely to give an outline of the plan proposed, subject however to such alterations as the nature of each case may require; and to bring the whole to a close as early as the extent and variety of the subjects will allow.

« PreviousContinue »